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was 216 3. Working mostly in the open air, they would doubtless live longer if they
were more wholesomely lodged and spent less of their time at the publichouse.
Their death-rate, too, will tend to become less as the extended use of machinery
relieves them of doing the work of mere animals. The unwholesomeness of their
habitations is shown by the enormous proportion of their deaths from the miasmatic
diseases. Heart diseases, apoplexy and paralysis, chronic bronchitic affections,
inflammatory chest diseases and phthisis, with kidney disease, as leading causes of
death, testify to the unfavourable conditions under which they live and labour.
Bricklayers and builders' labourers seem especially prone to die from phthisis; 20
out of 44 deaths of such persons on my returns, or 45'4 per cent., were from this
disease. Probably the dusty atmosphere they breathe is the main cause of this
large proportion. Their expectation of life is 27 years. I find on my list four
deaths of sewer labourers. All died comparatively young—two aged 32 years, one
aged 48, and one aged 49, the mean age at death being 40 years. Two died of
bronchitis, one of phthisis, and one of disease of the heart.
3. Brickmakers stand third. Their death-rate is 1,237 per 10,000 for seven years,
or 176 per annum. Their expectation of life is 38 years; that is, they appear to
come close upon the average for England generally. This discrepancy may be
accounted for. The brickmakers usually commence their occupation as " brickfield
labourers." Most of the latter rise uo higher; but the more intelligent and
teachable rise in time to work under the sheds, but usually not much before the age
of 30 years. Good brickmakers, I am informed, are difficult to obtain. I distinguish
between brickmakers and brickfield labourers. The latter commence as boys, and
at 20 years of age have, with us, an expectation of life of 30 years. Brickmakers
obtain good wages, but are very improvident; more than half the deaths on my
table took place in the workhonw. They suffer from their customary habitations,
much as labourers do; and acute chest diseases carried off a large proportion. On
the other hand, their working in places open to the air and with materials moist, and
so not giving off dust, gives them a remarkable immunity from phthisis. Were
these people habitually temperate and provident, their trade would prove, I am
convinced, one of the most salubrious of those followed in their rank of life.
4. Law Clerks, including law-writers, rank next. Their seven years'death-rate was
1,147 per 100,00, or 163 per annum. Their expectation of life with us at 20 is 25
years. Now these are a class of persons who enter upon their occupation young; and
although a small portion of them subsequently raise themselves to a higher rank in
the profession of the law, or enter upon other occupations, as accountants, (fee., yet
the majority, commencing with a poor education, remain law clerks or law-writers all
their lives. They have a high mortality from the miasmatic diseases and phthisis. As
a class, I am informed, to which of course there are honourable exceptions, they
are not remarkable for leading steady lives. Still law clerks have often plenty of
exercise and are not, as a rule, liable to work late. But they have to support their
families upon very moderate earnings; and if unsteady, both themselves and families
are liable to suffer from an insulfiency of nutritious food, and they are compelled to
reside in localities where they are exposed to contagia.
5. Shoemakers exhibit with us a death-rate of 931 per 10,000 in seven years, or of
133 per annum. In England generally in 1851 it was 186 per 10,000. Their